Gas Discovery

Operator Statoil has together with PL713 partners made a gas discovery in the Pingvin prospect in the Barents Sea. The discovery is a play opener in a frontier unexplored area of the Barents Sea northwest of Johan Castberg.
The discovery well 7319/12-1, drilled by the drilling rig Transocean Spitsbergen, proved a 15-metre gas column in the well path. Statoil estimates the volumes in Pingvin to be in the range of 30-120 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. The discovery is currently assessed as non-commercial.
“Pingvin is the first well drilled in PL713 – a large frontier area northwest of Johan Castberg awarded in the 22nd concession round. For a discovery in this area to be commercially viable it needs to be an oil accumulation of a significant size. A gas discovery does not have commercial value at present.
"On the positive side, it is encouraging that the first well drilled in this unexplored area has proven hydrocarbons in sandstones. This indicates that we have both a reservoir and a working hydrocarbon system in the area, and creates a good basis for further subsurface work in the licence,” says Dan Tuppen, vice president exploration Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea.
Pingvin is a good example of efficient exploration performance.
“The partnership drilled Pingvin just 15 months after the acreage award

Tanzania has invited energy explorers to bid for six blocks in the east African nation that is fast becoming a new frontier in the hunt for oil and gas.
According to a statement by the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation seen by Reuters, the six blocks are all inland and stretch from the southeast of the country to the northwest.
Bidders have until December 3 to submit their documents.
Tanzania has at least 14 companies exploring at sites both on and offshore

The oil and gas expanded the offshore drilling frontier in the Gulf of Mexico.
Already one of the most explored basins in the world, the Gulf of Mexico’s deepest hydrocarbon deposits will be auctioned off later this year, the result of political maneuvering in the waning moments of the last Congress.
This new area will attract interest from companies with deep pockets and lots of patience, according to industry experts.

Gas has been found by StatoilHydro in the Asterix prospect, which lies in 1,360 metres of water 345 kilometres west of Sandnessjøen in the Norwegian Sea.
Preliminary estimates put the proven recoverable volume, which is located 80 kilometres west of the Luva gas discovery, at about 16 billion cubic metres (100 million barrels of oil equivalent).
“This represents one of the bigger discoveries off Norway in recent years, and we’re very pleased with the result

Sound Oil, the European / Mediterranean focused upstream oil and gas company, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2014.
Highlights
* Introduction of cornerstone institutional investor following the year-end at a significant premium to market
* Continued preparation for the drilling of the world class Badile prospect early 2015 with a competitive farm out process underway

Van Oord has been awarded two contracts by international contractor Subsea 7. The assignments include the construction of a landfall and the execution of subsea rock installation works in Egypt. The projects are part of the West Nile Delta project, which comprises the development of a series of gas fields, located 65 km off the northern coast of Egypt. Final client is oil and gas company BP.
Preparations on site have already started.

According to reports, the Australian oil exploration company Santos announced an oil and gas discovery at the Dua-4X exploration well currently being drilled in exploration Block 12E, offshore of Vietnam.
Initial tests at the Dua-4X and Dua-4X ST1 wells, operated by Premier Oil, discovered oil and another well is to be drilled to evaluate reserves in the southern part of the field, said a Santos report.
Santos have agreed in April this year to take a 37

The ceremonial first cut of steel for the construction of the jackets on the Cygnus gas field project was celebrated today by operator GDF SUEZ E&P U.K. and partners Centrica Energy and Bayerngas at Burntisland Fabrication’s (BiFab) Methil yard in Fife, Scotland.
This latest project milestone involves BiFab’s manufacturing facilities at Methil, Burntisland and Arnish and is expected to create 100 new jobs at Methil and 15 apprentice positions will be created at Methil and

Dana Gas, one of Middle East's leading regional private sector natural gas Company, announces that it has achieved gas production level in Egypt of 200 million standard cubic feet per day (equivalent of 41,500 boepd, including over 8,000 barrels per day of associated liquids), the highest level for the company in the country in 2 years. This represents a growth of 29% over the 2012 average. The Company’s core operations in the Nile Delta and its Egyptian Bahrain Gas Derivatives

A new wave of investments in Papua New Guinea’s energy sector could see some $19 billion of projects launched in the coming years, boosting the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) output and providing employment to thousands.

Energy majors BP and Eni on Thursday announced a significant natural gas discovery off the Egyptian coast.
The discovery is in the Baltim southwest exploration prospect in the East Nile Delta.
It is 10 km north of the Nooros gas field which was discovered in July last year and

Kenya on Saturday inaugurated the first part of a new container terminal at Mombasa which is expected to boost by 50 percent the volume of cargo handled by East Africa's largest seaport.
Construction of the 30 billion shilling ($296.74 million)terminal began in March 2012 and was completed in

Sweden's Lundin Petroleum has found additional oil and gas near its Alta discovery in the Norwegian Arctic, the firm and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Tuesday.
"The total gross resource estimate for the Neiden discovery is between 25 and 60 million barrels of oil

Woodside advises that the Pyxis-1 exploration well in production licence WA-34-L has intersected approximately 18.5 metres of net gas within the Jurassic sandstone target.
The well reached a total depth of 3347 metres. Wireline logging has confirmed the discovery through the recovery of

Britain said on Thursday it had summoned the Argentine ambassador to explain the latest war of words over the disputed Falkland Islands which included a threat to prosecute British energy firms operating in the area.
Last week, Premier Oil Plc and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd said they had made an

French oil and gas giant Total has pulled out of a deepwater block in offshore Oman after failing to make commercially attractive discoveries, a senior Omani official told reporters on Monday.
Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas

Unlike almost all its neighbors, Guyana isn’t an oil producer yet. But the energy giant Exxon Mobil recently announced it had discovered “significant” oil off the coast.
The discovery could put Guyana on oil and gas Map and the country could become a player

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, confirmed the commencement of an Extended Well Test at the Wressle-1 oil and gas well (‘Wressle’) in East Lincolnshire (‘PEDL 180’). This follows the successful testing earlier this year of four intervals at Wressle

The Italian energy major Eni SpA discovered a “super giant” natural gas field offshore Egypt in what the Italian oil company said is the largest find in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Zohr gas field covers any area of 100 square kilometers and Eni said that "it could

Offshore contractor Subsea 7 has been awarded a $150 million subsea, umbilical, riser and flowline (SURF) contract by Maersk Oil for the development of the Culzean field in the UK North Sea.
The ultra-high pressure, high temperature field

Singapore looks to pull ahead in the race to become Asia’s main gas hub by establishing a domestic gas trading market.
Rising liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply and demand within Asia has prompted Singapore to to become a centre for energy trading.

This year, the offshore oil and gas industry has had to come to terms with the worst downturn for more than a decade. With commodity prices plummeting to an 11-year low in December, market research and consulting firm Douglas-Westwood (DW) reflects on the year gone by and considers the outlook for

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has said that building an LNG terminal in Cyprus will depend on discoveries and the results of the country’s third licensing round.
Discussing the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone’s third licensing round

Egypt will receive the first of five agreed shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia's Rosneft this month, an official at the state gas board EGAS told Reuters on Thursday.
Last year Egypt and Rosneft signed a memorandum of understanding for a slew of petroleum products as well as